Matitiyahou Drobless, head of the World Zionist Organization Settlement Division, prepared his first comprehensive plan for the establishment of colonies throughout the West Bank in 1978. Most of the colonies that were established as part of the Drobless plan were constructed on the central mountain ridge around Palestinian population centers. Drobless proposed new high volume traffic arteries to connect Israel to the West Bank and beyond. For their security, new settlements would be placed on the hilltops along the route, on the summits surrounding the large Palestinian cities, and around the roads connecting them to each other. Describing the intent of this plan, then economics editor of the Jerusalem Post Meir Merhav told Time magazine in March 1980 that the West Bank "is to be carved up by a grid of roads, settlements and strongholds into a score of little bantustans so that [the Palestinians] shall never coalesce again into a contiguous area that can support autonomous, let alone independent, existence."